Breast cancer ads a go

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, February 8, 2000

Controversial breast cancer awareness ads - some of them showing bare-chested women with mastectomies - will get a public viewing on billboards in San Francisco after all.

The ads, considered so shocking that sign companies and transit agencies decided last month to censor them in San Francisco and other Bay Area cities, were picked up by billboard company Eller Media. The firm announced Monday that it will put up the ads for free as a public service gesture.

"Advertising needs to be used to promote social change," said Eller representative Michael Colbruno.

The ads are part of a campaign by the San Francisco-based The Breast Cancer Fund. cq One ad shows a bare-chested woman in a sexy pose with scars where her breasts used to be. The others show women with single mastectomies. The ads are made up to look like a Cosmopolitan magazine cover and Calvin Klein perfume and Victoria's Secret ads, which often showcase big-breasted women to sell their products.

The photographs indeed jar viewers and are intended to bring attention to the disease that strikes one in eight women nationwide.

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"We have created a stir with this campaign," said The Breast Cancer Fund Director Andrea Martin, whose chest is depicted in the ad with a model's face. "Our intent, really, is to assure against complacency."

Martin named the organization's effort the "Obsessed with Breasts" public awareness campaign.

Colbruno said Eller hopes to place the ads on five or so billboards around town. However, he didn't know when. He said all the billboards Eller has are rented through September, although he hopes space can be freed up sooner.

The posters have been removed by authorities in Santa Clara and Napa counties and the city of Pittsburg. Outdoor Systems, which has a contract with The City to advertise on bus shelters, was planning to put up the ads for free, but after review, nixed them for being too jarring.

Lew Lillian, who heads Outdoor Systems and who made the decision to keep the ads off the bus

shelters, said he isn't about to change his mind, no matter what his competitor for outdoor advertising does.

"I'm not going to be pressured into it," he said after being told by a reporter of Eller's decision.

"This was a donated campaign," Lillian added. "I think I still live in America. Is someone going to tell me who I need to donate to?"

"If The City is going to allow bus shelters to be opened up to speech activity, it cannot allow the spaces to become an arena for censorship," Alan Schlosser, managing attorney for the local ACLU office, wrote the Board of Supervisors on Monday.

"The City should take steps to ensure that the powers it has in effect delegated to Outdoor Systems not be used to suppress speech based on its content," he said.

Supervisor Mark Leno introduced a resolution Monday that would put the Board of Supervisors on record in support of The Breast Cancer Fund's campaign - calling it courageous and creative - but the legislation stops short of directly condemning Outdoor Systems for banning the posters. &lt;